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Archives - December 2001

December 1, 2001

When a workman knows the use of his tools, he can make a door as well as a window.

– George Sand, THE MILL ON THE FLOSS

December 2, 2001

Language is the archives of history.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson, THE POET

December 3, 2001

No one wants advice -- only corroboration.

– John Steinbeck, THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT

December 4, 2001

Piety is like garlic: a little goes a long way.

– Rita Mae Brown, BINGO

December 5, 2001

Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.

– Cicero, DE ORATORE

December 6, 2001

Practical politics consists of ignoring facts.

– Henry Adams, EDUCATION

December 7, 2001

We have wakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve.

– Admiral Yamamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy

December 8, 2001

One sits uncomfortably on a too comfortable cushion.

– Lillian Hellman, SCOUNDREL TIME

December 9, 2001

In darkness, be light! And in your light preserve a spark of darkness, a spark of the Mystery from which light grows.

– Rabbi Arthur Waskow

December 10, 2001

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, every cubic inch of space is a miracle.

– Walt Whitman, LEAVES OF GRASS

December 11, 2001

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.

– Woody Allen, WITHOUT FEATHERS

December 12, 2001

I am younger each year at the first snow.

– Anne Sexton

December 13, 2001

Heirlooms we don't have in our family. But stories we've got.

– Rose Chernin, IN MY MOTHER 'S HOUSE

December 14, 2001

Once and for all you must know that there's a universe of people outside, and you're responsible to it.

– Arthur Miller, ALL MY SONS

December 15, 2001

Spilling your guts is just exactly as charming as it sounds.

– Fran Lebowitz, SOCIAL STUDIES

December 16, 2001

Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down.

– George Eliot, DANIEL DERONDA

December 17, 2001

Shouting has never made me understand anything.

– Susan Sontag, THE BENEFACTOR

December 18, 2001

No emotion is ever the final one.

– Jeanette Winterson, ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT

December 19, 2001

Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.

– Benjamin Franklin, POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC

December 20, 2001

What orators lack in depth, they make up in length.

– Montesquieu, LETTRES PERSANES

December 21, 2001

Our country: In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be right; but our country right or wrong.

– Stephen Decatur

December 22, 2001

Every situation -- no every moment -- is of infinite worth; for it is the representative of a whole eternity.

– Goethe, CONVERSATIONS WITH GOETHE

December 23, 2001

The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.

– Heda Bejar, PEACEMAKING DAY BY DAY

December 24, 2001

A perfectly managed Christmas correct in every detail is, like basted inside seams and letters answered by return, a sure sign of someone who hasn't enough to do.

– Katharine Whitehorn, SUNDAY BEST

December 25, 2001

When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow/We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago.

– Ella Wheeler Wilcox, POEMS OF POWER

December 26, 2001

One half the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

– Jane Austen, MANSFIELD PARK

December 27, 2001

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

– Samuel Butler, NOTE BOOKS

December 28, 2001

I could almost wish myself a dormouse or a she-bear, to sleep away the rest of this cold, cold winter.

– Anna Jameson, MEMOIRS OF ANNA JAMESON

December 29, 2001

If you have to be in a soap opera, try not to get the worst role.

– Boy George, THE FACE

December 30, 2001

I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer.

– Colette, THE LAST OF CHERI

December 31, 2001

Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.

– Brooks Atkinson